Available on vinyl for the first time since 2020. The ‘Someday, Somewhere’ EP comprises the single 'I’ll Be Fine', written and recorded by the band remotely during lockdown, alongside a selection of unreleased tracks recorded during the ‘Life After’ album sessions including the EP's much-loved title track (previously a live set exclusive). Originally released back in 2020 the vinyl version includes the bonus track ‘Trouble On The Water’ as previously released on the band’s ‘Hoxa Sessions’ acoustic EP. Bassist William Dorey left Palace after their first album and now records under the name Skinshape. 

TRACK LISTING

Someday, Somewhere
I'll Be Fine.
Flesh To The Fallen
Trouble On The Water

Skinshape (aka Will Dorey) releases his ninth studio album titled Another Side Of Skinshape on 27th September via Lewis Recordings. As the album title suggests, Dorey’s latest body of work is somewhat unlike anything in his prior discography. However, there is always a consistent Skinshape thread which pulsates throughout all of his music - a kind of sonic dreamscape which echoes a mystical nostalgia for a sun dappled afternoon.

Taking inspiration from childhood memories, Ethiopian rhythms, and even calls to prayer, Another Side Of Skinshape gained access to the most esoteric corners of Dorey’s mind. Whilst ‘It’s About Time’ and ‘Ananda’ display a slightly more synthesised palette than we typically hear of a Skinshape tune, singles ‘Stornoway’ and ‘Lady Sun’ (which features the hazy soul vocals of West London’s Hollie Cook) replicate the same lifeblood heard on albums Nostalgia, or Craterellus Tubaeformis.

Speaking on the album, Dorey says “Some songs pay homage to the 90s whilst others the 60s and 70s. Yet you may not perceive all of these in the form that they are presented. In any case I hope that the album is enjoyable and will fit casually into the flow of your day.”

Whilst making this album, Dorey experimented with various keyboards and drum machines, which are at times layered over the excellent drumming of Thomas Blunt, who played live onto tape. Blunt is well versed in the Skinshape vernacular, also being part of Dorey’s live band. Indeed, Another Side Of Skinshape is due for release just before a run of UK and US live dates, which will be the first time the band has ever hit the open road.

Dorey is a former member of the band Palace, has played Glastonbury, BBC Maida Vale and Shepherd’s Bush Empire to name a few. Skinshape’s ‘I Didn’t Know’ has streamed over 50 million times. He is proudly from Swanage, Dorest.

TRACK LISTING

Stornoway
Mulatu Of Ethiopia
Can You Play Me A Song?
Lady Sun (feat. Hollie Cook)
It’s About Time
How Can It Be?
Ananda
Road
Massako
There’s Only Hope

For fans of Mount Kimbie, Damon Albarn, Beach House, King Krule.

London based singer-songwriter Rollo Doherty releases his debut EP on Lewis Recordings.

Frontman for the indie guitar band ISLAND, his solo work is a radical departure from what fans would previously have known him for.

As the title suggests, Rollo began this new DIY project from the tranquility of his own home and drew inspiration from the many small, subtle occurrences happening just on the other side of his bedroom window. 90’s Hip-Hop, Movie Soundtracks and Shoegaze are just a few of several influences explored across this diverse piece of work.

‘Out of My Window’ features some scratching from the infamous DJ Yoda as well as crossing the pond, landing in the hands of Brooklyn based duo The Still Brothers, who provided new life through their brilliant analogue production and arrangements alongside the expertise of producer Mike Hill (Arlo Parks, ISLAND) at Lemontree Studios, L.A. The circle became complete when by chance the LA mastering legends Becker Mastering (Doja Cat, Tyler The Creator, Harry Styles) happened upon the unreleased music when mixing engineer Mike visited their studio and asked to hear his latest work.

The EP’s duration serves as a metaphor for a single day, as it spans over approximately the duration of 24 minutes, each representing an hour of the day. Ambient soundscapes are heard in-between each track, all moments captured at corresponding parts of the day on Rollo’s handheld microphone which he poises from his window.

TRACK LISTING

Intro (Out My Window)
Venus On A Flower
Papaya
It’s All Beautiful Rain
Little Bird
Sun Goes Down Behind Your House
Someone’s Gonna Break My Little Heart Tonight
Outro (Beautiful Rain, Part 2)

Blessing/curse. Division/unity. Love/hate. It’s in the context of a polarising 24-hour, digitised, globally connected world that NightjaR finds its wings. NightjaR being the nom-de-plume and smudged rainbow constellation of collaborative copy-and-paste sound-wrangling and hip-hop from Jimi Goodwin. But it’s here and it’s Mala Leche.

Mala Leche (Spanish: Bad Milk) is 16 tracks of beats and bars, vocals provided by some of the hip-hop artists at the very top of his own, personal home listening lists and interludes that throw back and forth through eras and genres in sometimes playful, occasionally awakeningly abrasive styles. How did it all come together?

“The good thing about social media is that it makes everyone available. Everyone has their contact details or their management’s contact details on their profiles. I could literally just email or DM someone.”

Goodwin has form in this, his chosen arena. Anyone paying attention to his extra-curricular activities at the same time his ‘day job’ in the still-active Doves presented him a third UK No.1 album in 2020 will have noted his production, as Coup Diablo (“Bollocks, that name! I don’t know what I was thinking!”) on Pan Amsterdam’s Ha Chu album in the same year. Improbably connecting the nocturnal, lamp-lit laboratory vibe of a home studio at the foot of England’s Peak District with Miami, Florida, Goodwin and Pan Amsterdam linked up once again this time around, with the one-time jazz musician-turned rapper’s authoritative prose and trumpet gracing first single, Space Bar and album closer, Glove Department.

Much like the basis for many of Mala Leche’s new-era collaborations, the two have never met in person, yet the creativity flowed easily through fibre optics and across time zones.

“I like clever wordsmiths,” says Goodwin, “not just cusses and Pan is exactly that kind of artist. He’s The Don. Full respect to him, he got fed up with the jazz scene he was part of, frustrated by the bullshit. He’s gone and called it out and done his own thing. You’ve got to admire that.”

Kindred spirits. NightjaR finds Goodwin, whilst not breaking ranks as a member of Doves (“They are my peers, man!”) in the same way as Pan rejected the accepted notions of local jazz circuit, it’s something that visibly lights new creative fires in him. “I make a beat every other day. There’s no agenda, nothing obscure or clever, it’s just instinctive. There came a point when I considered getting these rappers involved… to bring it out of it just being me on my own… YOU CAN’T DO THAT JIMI! Turns out that I could!”

First fruits borne of the collaborative seeds sown on Mala Leche are heard on the album’s second track, Baby Don’t, where both Birmingham, UK-based rapper SonnyJim and Detroit’s Quelle Chris commit their voices to a tantalisingly brief (only 2m 14s) NightjaR beat laced with chiming, crystalline melodic motifs. The two rappers had already put out music in combination, drawing Goodwin’s ear with the SonnyJim’s 2016 release, Mud In My Malbec, featuring Quelle Chris on the track, Dorchester. Bandcamp has proved revelatory while constructing the new NightjaR world, with these discoveries, Pan Amsterdam and others coming directly through that platform.

Not all commitments have come without the warmth of personal encounter, however. New York’s Homeboy Sandman, skimming studied street verse over the stand-up bass-driven track, Pirates, appears on the album following a personal, if chance encounter. As Goodwin recounts, “I was in New York in 2017, just exploring the city on my own. One day I’d been in touch with Homeboy Sandman, just exchanging messages, just asking if I could send him my beats. Same day, totally by chance, I come out of the subway and bump right into him! Whatever the ways of contacting these rappers I’ve been able to put together my dream team.”

Closer to home, the unmistakable voice, meter and lyrical proclivities of Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson land, without ambiguity, on Blood Red Dead. With the peal of a repeating, distorted guitar lick and a single, grounding organ note, Williamson’s Nottinghamshire brogue is welcomed through a longstanding sense of mutual interest and respect. Of the same generation, compatible politics and frequently lost in a world of instant, all-too-public messaging, the pair are long-time acquaintances.

“We’ve never met in person,” admits Goodwin, “but we’re on the phone to each other all the time. I was blown away by what he’s done on ‘Blood Red Dead’. It’s totally ‘him’. I admire people who are just like ‘fuck you!’ and working and living with that sense of conviction. Just people who can completely be themselves.”

Much like Sleaford Mods, Doves or any band name, NightjaR is a useful alias in the process of Goodwin becoming, like Williamson, completely himself. After percolating over seven years and finally facing the prospect of going public, the name crept from corners of inspiration linked to both voodoo doctor Dr John’s unsettling, 1968 debut album, GRIS-grisand the bird of the same name. Nocturnal creatures camouflaged from discovery while roosting in the daytime, and ascending to mythical status for an ages-old reported ability to steal milk from goats, the enigmatic bird is a well-chosen totem to Mala Leche’s similar sense of post-dusk mystery.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Broken Saturday Night
2. Baby Don’t Feat Sonny Jim & Quelle Chris
3. Burnt Up Nights
4. Piano Heights Feat Pruven, Vast Aire & Burgundy Blood
5. Smashing Little Boat
6. Pirates Feat Homeboy Sandman
7. Harlem Dream
8. Blood Red Dead Feat Jason Willamson
9. Sylvester
Side B:
1. Space-Bar Feat Pan Amsterdam
2. The Fuck It Boogaloo
3. Anything Something
4. Thee Omen Feat Homeboy Sandman
5. Mala Leche Feat Guilty Simpson
6. YOU BASTARD
7. Glove Department Feat Pan Amsterdam

Aiming to rescue the airwaves from run-of-the-mill rap and humdrum Hip-Hop, the Hometown Heroes crew swoops into view, bringing together audiovisual evangelist DJ Yoda, soundsystem shocker Brad Baloo of The Nextmen, and legendary rhyme supplier Edo G out of Boston for a funky fix of unashamed dad-hop.

The holy trinity have dozens of classics under their belts covering Rap’s golden era to the present and ‘Hometown Heroes’ is another gem providing the sort of rewindable Hip-Hop that’s hella breezy, but still packing plenty of bluster beneath the surface.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

1. Advice
2. The Process
3. What You Wanna Do
4. Do You Right
5. Stand Still
6. Talk About It

Side B

1. Advice Instrumental
2. The Process Instrumental
3. What You Wanna Do Instrumental
4. Do You Right Instrumental
5. Stand Still Instrumental
6. Talk About It Instrumental

New remastered version with alternative cover art. Unlike all DJ Yoda’s artist albums, ‘Breakfast Of Champions’ features the same collaborators on every track effectively putting together a band. The genesis of the project was in Manchester, where the legendary Band On The Wall venue asked him to host an artistic residency. He put a call out for local musicians, did auditions, and selected three rappers. Two were local to Manchester - Truthos Mufasa and Sparkz. They were local legends making up parts of The Mouse Outfit and LVLZ. And the third was Rex Domino from down south, who was a British MC who Yoda thought would gel well with the other guys. They wrote, rehearsed and recorded intensively in Manchester - performed a memorable series of live shows (including an epic Glastonbury show), and Yoda put the finishing touches to the album back in London after the fact. “It was such an enjoyable experience” says Yoda. “Lifelong friendships were made, and most excitingly two of the band members got together (James Breen, drummer, and Claire Northey, violinist) and had two kids! So there are Breakfast of Champions humans out there too!” This new pressing features alternative artwork that was never used at the time of the album’s original release. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 And To The World
A2 Day To Night
A3 Pebble Beach
A4 Click
A5 2468
B1 Super Cereal Syrup
B2 The Baddest
B3 Mantra
B4 Better Day
B5 Open Your Eye

For fans of Khruangbin, El Michels Affair, Madlib and Bonobo. Features the singles ‘It’s Real, ‘Amnesia’, and ‘The Ocean’. Will Dorey aka Skinshape has proven himself time and again a connoisseur for the cosmopolitan, across a prolific career expertly exploring understated sounds and theatrical textures. Taking his place alongside the likes of Khruangbin, Tame Impala, Bonobo and Madlib, Skinshape’s global kaleidoscopes are loaded with warmth and wisdom created on vintage analogue equipment applying a perfectionist’s touch.

As a former member of indie band Palace, he has played everywhere from Glastonbury and BBC Maida Vale to headlining Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Speaking on his latest record Craterellus Tubaeformis, Dorey remarks, "As I continue to make albums, I always try to capture some elements of the original Skinshape style. Here I ran through albums 1-3. This record is really an echo of the "Life & Love" era of Skinshape, playful psychedelia, with punchy beats, fun surprises, and an attempt at meaningful lyrics." Named after a very specific genus of edible mushroom, Craterellus Tubaeformis shares all the attributes of its nutritious counterpart due to how difficult both are to cultivate. Skinshape’s music is the product of a highly devoted and meticulous composer who uses some of the rarest analogue equipment out there. The product is such a definitive sound heard nowhere else but so easily identified as Skinshape. 

TRACK LISTING

A1 The Pool Of Dee
A2 It's Real
A3 The Ocean
A4 The Longest Shadow
A5 Care About Me
A6 Nobody Knows
A7 Quiet
B1 Amnesia
B2 Zanzibar
B3 Ganymede
B4 The Lady
B5 Peace Piece
B6 Country Woman

Remastered version of ‘Home Cooking’, the album that cemented Yoda as a versatile producer and not just a deejay. It now serves as a snapshot of the jazz and soul scene at the time with artists like Nubya Garcia, Eva Lazarus and Theon Cross going on to break out. Recorded between his own studio and the world-famous Abbey Road, ‘Home Cooking’ keeps one foot in the Hip-Hop old school with collaborations and the return from Jungle Brothers and Boston bastion Edo. G. Two key singles have been remixed for a bonus 7”. ‘Roxbury’ featuring Nubya Garcia and Edo. G has been given the golden treatment by the legendary Double Dee & Steinski while ‘London Fields’ featuring Joel Culpepper is reworked by label mates The Still Brothers. 

TRACK LISTING

London Fields Feat. Joel Culpepper
Thornton Heath Feat. Omar
Rising Brook Feat. Eva Lazarus
Kingswood Feat. Andrew Ashong
Abbey Road Feat. Nubya Garcia Theon Cross & Henry Wu
Roxbury Feat. Edo G & Nubya Garcia
Soweto Feat. Scarface Manolo
Hither Green Feat. Joel Culpepper & Baby Bam
Afrika Feat. Jungle Brothers
Croxley Green
Eastville Feat. Eva Lazarus
Boundary Gardens Feat. Andrew Ashong….
Roxbury Double Dee & Steinski Remix
London Fields Still Brothers Remix

For fans of Khraungbin, El Michels Affair, Skinshape, The Shacks. Features the singles ‘Wake Up’, ‘The Deep’, ‘I Wanna Be With You’ and ‘It’s Not Over’. Supported Big Crown’s Surprise Chef on their 2023 UK Tour. Brooklyn duo The Still Brothers is a musical project of childhood friends Evan Heinze (The Shacks/Big Crown) and Andrew LeCoche (Ula Ruth). Heinze has toured with the likes of Khraungbin, Lee Fields and Cut Chemist, while LeCoche’s old band once opened for Paul Simon and Edie Brickell. A former student of Madlib’s uncle Jon Faddis, LeCoche has scored music for Netflix and Patagonia and sound design for Twitter, Patron, and Marvel. Signing to Lewis Recordings in 2020 the band’s first single ‘The Deep’ was instantly picked up by Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music who regularly plays it to this day. ‘Wake Up’ featuring the vocals of Marina B. spent six weeks on the BBC 6 Music playlist gaining support from Lauren Laverne, Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Craig Charles, Huey Morgan, Cerys Matthews, Don Letts, Tom Ravenscroft and Guy Garvey. Lockdown didn’t slow down the band’s creativity with many tracks on their self-titled debut EP recorded remotely. 

TRACK LISTING

Intro
I Wanna Be With You
Sungalz
Rest Easy
Easy, Easy
Wake Up
When Will I See U?
It’s Not Over
Ah Ha
The Deep

Dressed in a powder blue suit with the frilly shirt to match, DJ Yoda invites you to be his +1 for ‘Prom Nite’, his new album promising retro Americana full of daydreaming reverie, international megastar guests, trip hop acknowledging the likes of Morcheeba and Nightmares on Wax, and the turntable extraordinaire’s bread and butter of cuts, beats and rhymes.

Certainly no stranger to retro sounds having famously peppered his DJ and AV sets with the unexpected the world over, and his ‘How to Cut n Paste’ mix series going all the way back to the 30s, Yoda’s harp-laden puppy love vibe spreads from the sweet and mellow sound of 2019’s ‘Home Cooking’, an album described as ‘boundary-breaking’ by Mojo upon slotting nicely into the UK’s blooming jazz canon. Think deliciously harmonised doo-wop murmuring ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ with an eye for dreamboats en route to Makeout Point – on ‘My Energy’, Eva Lazarus takes the form of an earth angel, with Yoda on jukebox cut-ups, taking it back to starry-eyed, clean cut days of wonder (or more recently, Little Mix’s ‘Love Me Like You’).

Beginning enigmatically with the assistance of Hollywood A-lister (and former next-door neighbour) Lily James, ‘Breathe’ demonstrate Yoda’s continued evolution as a musician (not to mention shrewd decision maker), with James’ vocal confidence - a little Lana del Rey to her breathiness - returning on the velvet-smooth ‘Airplane Mode’. It’s a smartly executed soundclash accentuated by LA rapper Choosey, the star of the album’s straightest hip-hop shooter ‘Harder I Rock’. Homeboy Sandman adds some kick to the prom punch with typical wordplay sent down ‘Coconut Grove’, and Liam Bailey is perfectly cast for the darkly cinematic sway of ‘Don’t Even Try It’.

On an album of many talking points, the LP’s crowning glory is opening single ‘Feel Like Home’: featuring the vocal comforts of the House Gospel Choir, it’s your go–to pick-me-up when the chips are down, targeting the hairs on the backs of necks like a softer focus version of Jamie xx’s ‘Loud Places’. Extended into an alternative, equally uplifting form by Beardyman’s ‘Don’t Mean Thing’, summer festival season already has its homecoming anthem.

With tongues wagging, the twists and turns step away from Heartbreak Ridge when O Love tucks into the mouthwatering shopping list funk of ‘Way Home’; and ‘Lesson 1956’, featuring Jamie Cullum and DJ Woody, jauntily pays homage to classic Cut Chemist alchemy, Yoda’s celebrated turntable tomfoolery back in full effect and extending the flavours found in ‘Home Cooking’.

Again maximising the experience and enjoyment gained from recording live instruments and prioritising songs over beats, Yoda continues to progress with a mixture of risk-taking, elite musicianship, nostalgia brought bang up to date, and ultimately, good clean fun capable of stirring your soul, making ‘Prom Nite’ a date to remember.

TRACK LISTING

1. Breathe (feat. Lily James)
2. Coconut Grove (feat. Homeboy Sandman)
3. Don't Even Try It (feat. Liam Bailey)
4. Lesson 1956 (feat. Jamie Cullum & DJ Woody)
5. My Energy (feat. Eva Lazarus)
6. Feel Like Home (feat. The House Gospel Choir)
7. Airplane Mode (feat. Lily James & Choosey)
8. Harder I Rock (feat. Choosey)
9. Way Home (feat. O. Love)
10. Don’t Mean A Thing (feat. Beardyman)

For fans of Khruangbin, El Michels Affair, Tame Impala and Bonobo. “I spent a while thinking about the title for this album; it was quite hard to pin down the feeling I felt it represented. At a certain point I realized it was nostalgia, for everything; our life passed by, childhood, moments of happiness and sadness, where we grew up”. – Skinshape.

Will Dorey aka Skinshape has proven himself time and again as a connoisseur for the cosmopolitan, across a prolific career expertly exploring understated sounds and theatrical textures. Taking his place alongside the likes of Khruangbin, Tame Impala, Bonobo and Madlib, Skinshape’s global kaleidoscopes are loaded with warmth and wisdom created on vintage analogue equipment applying a perfectionist’s touch. As a former member of indie band Palace, he has played everywhere from Glastonbury and BBC Maida Vale to headlining Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Conversely as a solo artist Skinshape has never played live preferring to record, releasing an album a year (two in 2020’s lockdown) and keeping away from the trappings of stardom.

Full of gilded guitars, tantalizing Rhodes, languid strings and chords that fill the soul with joy - "Nostalgia" is the perfect accompaniment for road trips through the countryside and afternoon languishing by the riverside. Recommended! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A beautifully vibrant, relaxed, and heart warming album that sits alongside it's current contemporaries in fine style. Every group of friends’ve got someone who can make baggy pants and a floral shirt look good, and this album is that person!

TRACK LISTING

1. Theme For Lazarus
2. Better Chances
3. Dreams Of Panama
4. Moonlight Walk
5. Albion
6. High Tide, Storm Rising
7. Turn Away
8. Bohanon's Cornucopia
9. Bad Dreams
10. Fish & Chips
11. Dawn

R&B Star joins Yoda for a London anthem. Smooth jazzy R&B sounds combine Yoda’s lush prodection with Joel Culpepper sublime vocals. Culpepper has collaborated with the likes of Swindle and supported Stevie Wonder and Lalah Hathaway to name but two.

TRACK LISTING

A. London Fields
B. London Fields Instrumental

Taken from the ‘Home Cooking’ album. The name DJ Yoda needs no introduction and joined with rising UK Jazz star Nubya Garcia and legendary emcee Edo. G, ‘Roxbury’ is a sublime mix of Rap, Jazz and Soul. Perfect summer vibes! Recorded between DJ Yoda’s studio and the acclaimed Abbey Road, the record is influenced by Guru’s ‘Jazzmatazz’.

TRACK LISTING

A. Roxbury Ft Nubya Garcia And Edo. G
B. Roxbury Instrumental

Originally released in 2014 and available for the first time on CD. CD only bonus tracks ‘Surf Rider’ and ‘Rainy Dub’ Written, recorded, mixed and produced by Will Dorey, Skinshape’s self-titled debut album showcases the talents of the then 23 year old. Recorded in bedrooms, lounges and ‘The Arch’ studio in North London the trademark ‘Skinshape’ sound was already starting to emerge. Everything from psychedelia and rock to indie and dub is explored. A stunning debut for a now much loved artist.

TRACK LISTING

1 Live By The Day
2 The Place Upstream
3 Heartache
4 Shangri-La
5 Sunday Morning (feat. Aaron Taylor)
6 You Don’t Love Me
7 Stabo (feat. Anina)
8 Bonus Breaks
9 Rainy Dub (CD Only Bonus Track)
10 Surf Rider (CD Only Bonus Track)

With over 15000,000 (yes, fifteen million!) plays on YouTube and over 2,000,000 on Spotify we thought it was only fair that Skinshape’s most popular song was released on glorious vinyl. The track is already on the ‘Filoxiny’ album so Skinshape extended the mix and backed it with a dub version for the flip. Skinshape is the project of British musician William Dorey. The sound has roots in many genres but in particular 1960s Funk, Soul, Reggae, Psychedelic Rock, Afrobeat and Folk.

Aside from the Skinshape project Dorey was bassist for the band Palace from 2014-2017 and also runs a reggae label called Horus Records based in North London. About I Didn’t Know from Dorey himself: “This is the most 'pop' song I've possibly ever made, and possibly the most 'modern' sounding. It is about being in a difficult relationship and not knowing how to deal with it and making mistakes as a result. I wrote and recorded most of the song around the drum pattern, and created some (terrible sounding) digital orchestral parts temporarily whilst I created the body of the song. I recorded the strings and horns in the last part of the recording process before doing the final mixes. The horns were recorded separately with the help of my long-time friend (since school) and master arranger Jon Moody (of the group Franc Moody).”

The many monikered, multifaceted genre smasher Leron Thomas, nowadays better known as Bill Callahan-sounding outsidere MC Pan Amsterdam, switches into his OG jazz mode with the scattershot mastery of 'More Elevator Music'. Taking the first three tracks as a sample of the wanton eclecticism of the LP, Leron opens with a meditative modern jazz piece, then fuzzes out with Iggy Pop for a avant jazz punk snarler, before aping naive house on the electronic oddball "People Are Watching". Wildly creative and insanely catchy tackle from this perennial boundary pusher.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:

1. Conference Room
2. In The City (Feat. Iggy Pop)
3. People Are Watching
4. IFeel
5. Fox Wit
6. Audacious Pigeons

Side B

1. Veins
2. IDo
3.. Blind
4. Endicott
5. Corporate
6. Field Trip

Fifth studio album featuring Malcolm Catto, D'Alma, Idd Aziz and Modou Touré. Includes the singles Sua Alma, In The End and Afande. His most accomplished album to date Will Dorey aka Skinshape moved out of his comfort zone to create a new sound while retaining his trademark feel. While Skinshape has often been influenced by African music ‘Umoja’ directly incorporates styles and rhythms from the continent. Drawing on London’s vast talent pool from across the globe collaborators bring the essence of Senegal, Portugal, Ghana and Kenya via Norway no name but a few.

The initial plan was to travel to various African nations to record ‘Umoja’. This proved to be an unnecessary step because Skinshape's hometown of London ended up bearing many fruits. It was a challenging project for Dorey taking a year and a half of dedicated work to complete with many ideas left unfinished along the way. The album has a very global feel which was enhanced at the end of the process by a collaboration with Japanese painter Ken-ichi Omura. Fans of Skinshape’s distinctive voice will not be disappointed as he features on ‘In The End’ and ‘Sun’. Long-time friend and collaborator Jon Moody (from the band Franc Moody) wrote the album’s horn parts. 

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1 Sua Alma (feat. D'Alma)
2 In The End
3 Afande (feat. Idd Aziz)
4 Kourou (feat. Modou Touré)
5 Azon De Ma Gnin..

Side 2
6 Amigos E Inimigos (feat. D'Alma)
7 Sunny Day
8 Sudan (feat. Idd Aziz)
9 Dourlé (feat. Modou Touré)
10 Lehin Ti Aye Ba Iku

A soul and jazz spreading of wings, with the help of scene headliners Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross and Henry Wu. ‘Home Cooking’ is the new, mature sound of DJ Yoda. Maximising the experience and enjoyment gained from recording live instruments and prioritising songs over beats for his previous two albums ‘Breakfast of Champions’ and ‘Chop Suey’, this is a big step for the cut-and-paster as a producer, having wowed the world over for over two decades with his celebrated turntable tomfoolery. Recorded between his own studio and the world famous Abbey Road, ‘Home Cooking’ keeps one foot in the hip-hop old school with collaborations with the returning Jungle Brothers (the party-starting ‘Afrika’) and Boston bastion Edo. G (a peaceful route from London to ‘Roxbury’), and spreads to a melodic vibe scoring chilled Sunday mornings.

“I titled this one ‘Home Cooking’ because the music is so close to my heart, in terms of what I grew up on, and what really speaks to me on a personal level”. Imbued with the spirit of Guru’s ‘Jazzmatazz’, the output of Acid Jazz and 90s vitals from the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, Yoda admits that it's a happy accident that, whilst drawing on jazzy, soulful hip-hop from 25 years ago, the sound of ‘Home Cooking’ is very much of-the-moment. With British jazz currently in the rudest of health, vigorously championed by Gilles Peterson and with the likes of Sons of Kemet receiving Mercury Prize recognition to show such an upsurge has not gone unnoticed, Yoda lines up some of the best musicians the scene has to offer.

Sons of Kemet member and tuba sharp shooter Theon Cross, fast-rising saxophonist and boundary breaker Nubya Garcia, and award-winning jazz alchemist Henry Wu on keys, put ‘Home Cooking’ in the safest, most nimble of hands. “I feel so lucky to have been able to work with musicians of this calibre”. Add in the vocals of Brit-soul legend and MBE Omar, BBC Introducing star/“the UK's answer to Frank Ocean" Joel Culpepper, (‘London Fields’, played as a live six-piece session for BBC Radio London) and big gun for hire Eva Lazarus (a prominent feature on Swindle’s ‘No More Normal’, an album that runs parallel to ‘Home Cooking’), and the timing of Yoda’s sound expansion, plotted across London and beyond, has been impeccable. “It’s just lucky that right now is such a great moment for UK jazz, and that coinciding with me making this album - it certainly wasn’t by design. I didn’t set out to necessarily make something with such a strong jazz and soul influence, but at one point I took a step back and listened to everything I’d made, and it had accidentally, or subconsciously, turned out like that”. 

TRACK LISTING

1. London Fields
2. Thornton Heath
3. Rising Brook
4. Gospel Oak (CD Only Track)
5. Kingswood
6. Abbey Road
7. Roxbury
8. Soweto
9. Hither Green
10. Afrika
11. Croxley Green
12. Eastville
13. Boundary Gardens

Skinshape is the project of British musician, William Dorey. The sound has roots in many genres, but in particular 1960s-70s Funk, Soul, Reggae, Psychedelic Rock, Afrobeat and Folk. Skinshape grew out of a love for old music and the way it sounded. Initially Dorey experimented with samples (especially drum breaks) to create instrumental hip-hop/trip-hop tracks, but then later started to play around with tape machines as a means to create his own 'samples'. This process gave birth to Skinshape, with all elements being recorded by Dorey since the first self-titled album, released in 2014. He released his second album Oracolo in 2015, and in 2017 he released his third album 'Life & Love.' Aside from the Skinshape project, Dorey was bassist for the band Palace from 2014-2017, and also runs a reggae label called Horus Records, based in North London. 

TRACK LISTING

1. After Midnight
2. I Didn't Know
3. Metanoia
4. Shimmer 
5. Breathe
6. Life As One
7. We Lose
8. Filoxiny